Etymologies

Examples

Richard Moore writes that nobody is quite sure who first started calling Hinault "Le Blaireau" "the Badger", but the name stuck to the man who would go on to win the Tour de France five times because, as an old team mate put it, "It suited him.

The Alpe d'Huez and the Stelvio are among the familiar names, but the authors also draw our attention to La Redoute, where Bernard Hinault permanently lost the feeling in two fingers in sub-zero conditions during the 1980 Liège-Bastogne-Liège classic, and the Croce d'Aune, the pass in the Dolomites where a mishap in 1927 inspired Tullio Campagnolo to invent the quick-release wheel, a boon to every subsequent rider.

Sanchez for his part had finished on the podium three times since 2006 but was unable to pull off a repeat in the 104th edition of a race won by such luminaries as Fausto Coppi, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Sean Kelly.